Rubbing out Waterlox

[Daniel Smith]

I'm in the process of finishing a Morris chair with Waterlox original and have a question about achieving a satin finish. I can get a very smooth surface to the touch with wet sanding (800 grit and mineral spirits), but the sheen is really uneven visually. My read is that while I'm getting rid of the dust nibs, I'm only sanding the high points of the finish, leaving me with the uneven sheen. So, when rubbing out Waterlox, is the process similar to doing a French polish where the first step is flattening the finish with a relatively coarse grit before going up through the grits or is there more convenient way to knock the gloss off?

[Scott Holmes]

Yes and no.

"French polish" does not use any grits of sandpaper, it's an application technique for shellac. It uses pumice, mineral oil, shellac and a polishing cloth (linen) pad.

Yes wet sanding with finer and finer grits will get you to the sheen you want; all the way to gloss. Satin is also easily obtained using steelwool. Buy your steelwool at a woodworking store or online supplier the steelwool at the big box stores is not the same quality steelwood sold by wood specialty stores.

[John TenEyck]

To follow-up on what Scott said, steel wool or whatever the corresponding synthetic pad is will allow you to get a uniform satin sheen w/o having to have the surface dead level. This is the problem you are seeing by using sandpaper on a block. If the surface isn't dead level the sandpaper just hits the high spots and everything in the valleys is still glossy. If you have enough coats of finish on the arms of the chair, you may wish to go the sandpaper route, however, because that will give you the best look on those larger, flat surfaces. Then do the rest of the chair with steel wool. For the sandpaper route, you would start out at 325 or 400 grit wet/dry paper on a rubber or felt block and sand it until there are no more glossy spots left. Use MS or water with a little dish washing soap as a lubricant. Then work your way up to 600 or 800 grit for a satin sheen.

John

[Alan Lightstone]

I had a thread last year on my vain attempts at rubbing out Waterlox. I never could make it work on a table top. Drove me crazy, especially because I like the looks of that finish.

IMHO, steel wool can work for satin, but sandpaper just doesn't work if you want to get semi-gloss or a piano gloss finish. Witness lines constantly came up.

Do a search for my long thread. Hopefully it can add some insight.

[David Kuzdrall]

Waterlox Orignal will loose gloss during the first few months so you may not need to mechanically dull it at all. One thing that I have done after the waterlox has cured for a few weeks is to rub it with brown paper bags. I don't think that this impacted the gloss but it did leave the surface free of dust nibs and silky smooth.

[Prashun Patel]

Which product exactly are you using?

[Daniel Smith]

Thanks for the replies. I'll give the steel wool at try.

As for which product I'm using - Waterlox Original sealer/finisher.

[Prashun Patel]

If you're using OSF, then there's 2 things to beware of: 1) as mentioned, the gloss will settle down quite a bit. It'll go from high gloss to about semigloss over a couple months. Also, by virtue of its consistency, it will take more coats than their gloss product to get a thickness suitable for rubbing out.

[Alan Lightstone]

The problem as I see it, is that to successfully rub out a finish, it needs to be sufficiently thick that you don't sand through it and get witness lines. Finishes in which each coat burns into coats below it, generally can be rubbed out successfully. The problem is that Varnish doesn't burn in. It layers, making rubbing out more difficult as you can easily sand into previous coats.

Lacquer, Shellac, some water-borne finishes that burn in are better for rubbing out. Poly doesn't work well as it's too flexible and scuff resistant,

[Jim Matthews]

The original finisher has only the pure resin and solvent - no additives bring down the sheen.

I was taught to apply Waterlox with a progressively finer "grit" of abrasive pad, the Mirka Mirlon.
It's non-woven, so it won't leave any fibers in the finish.

Each successive layer is polished by the next application. A day or two between coats is sufficient.
No sanding or dust control necessary. It's effective and easy (even I can do it, this way).

The lack of fiddly intermediate steps is a definite plus.
Coarser pads leave an appearance that is less shiny.

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